I’ve been using Lawry’s stew seasonings for 25 years. It makes a delicious gravy based stew. Towards the end of cooking time, I always add some extra water with cornstarch to thicken it up. Always a hit with my family with some good bread and a salad. Even company loves it and it looks gourmet served in beautiful dishes.

Produced by Adam Sandler’s company, Happy Madison, this movie has a lot of elements you would come to expect from many of Adam Sandler’s past comedic escapades, such as toilet humor and slapstick elements, and “Benchwarmers” makes great use of these and other elements that have delighted fans for several years. Rob Schneider, a recurring minor character actor from several Sandler films, steps up to the plate in this latest baseball comedy, which follows a growing trend of movies glorifying the low people on the social totem pole. I personally have always enjoyed seeing movies that do this, and “Benchwarmers” is no exception. Unless you are totally opposed to this type of humor, “Benchwarmers” is sure to hit a home run with your funny bone! Older children and teens particularly will find this movie a treat, but I would recommend this movie to anyone, regardless of age (with the exception of very young children), who has ever found entertainment value in Adam Sandler or the three featured actors herein!

Just as is the case with all Happy Madison-produced movies, this movie comes equipped with a crappy plot. However, also as usual, the movie manages to be funny and entertaining anyway. The characters and the humorous dialogue are what make the movie worth seeing. Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Heder, Nick Swardson and Jon Lovitz are all very funny in their respective roles.

My favorite characters were Richie (Spade) and his brother Howie (Swardson), who suffers from agoraphobia and does not leave the house. He fears the sun, in particular, as he believes that it is bad and that it wants to burn him. Richie finally tricks Howie into leaving the house by telling him that there is an escaped killer running loose in their town who is hell-bent on killing people named Howie. Before this, however, we also get to see Howie go to battle with 2 cute little Girl Scouts.

There are some very funny one-liners delivered in this movie. I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times, usually at something said by David Spade’s character.

Jon Lovitz, Craig Kilborn, Tim Meadows and a few others do well with their supporting roles. Lovitz is particularly funny as a nerd-turned-billionaire who spitballs the idea of “The Benchwarmers” team.

I would recommend seeing the movie, but I wouldn’t put it on the same level as Spade’s past movies, Napoleon Dynamite or any older Sandler movies. I would place it just on the level with a Rob Schneider movie, like Deuce Bigalow. Worth watching, then decide whether or not you want to own it.

I wasn’t all that enthused about watching The Benchwarmers, but the film had me laughing from the very start and really surprised me with its home run of an ending, as it featured a really effective twist on an otherwise wholly predictable story. Underdog movies like this are a dime a dozen, but The Benchwarmers is really one of the better ones. With Saturday Night Live alums every where you look (and a little helping hand from Adam Sandler as co-executive producer), this movie has the comedy covered. Sure, it’s decidedly juvenile in nature, but guess what? The film’s main target audience is juveniles. Whether we like it or not, growing up involves a lot of fart jokes, underwear incidents, and name-calling. The comedy is actually one of the most realistic aspects of the film, if you ask me.

So here’s the deal. After watching some bully athletes torment three kids for daring to play some baseball on “their” public field, Gus (Rob Schneider) decides to drag out the old mitt and play a little ball with two of his really dysfunctional buddies, Richie (David Spade), who sports a 3 Stooges-inspired haircut and works at the local video store, and Clark (Jon Heder), a really dumb paper-delivery guy. When the snotty ball players show up again, Gus challenges them to a game – and he, Richie, and Clark actually win, thanks to Gus’ baseball prowess. Other challenges roll in, and before you know it local nerd-turned-billionaire Mel (Jon Lovitz) puts together a statewide round robin tournament, with the winner earning a fancy new stadium for his town. All of those who have suffered at the hands of bullies, young and old alike, start turning up to cheer on their “Benchwarmers” 3-man baseball team. Now you might think that, in the end, something happens to Gus and his severely baseball-challenged teammates somehow manage to win the day for all of the nerds and geeks supporting them. You might think that, but you’d be wrong – sort of, anyway. The way the ending comes off is no less corny than the rest of the movie, but it is rather delightfully different and serves to reinforce the message of the whole story.

It’s sort of a shame that the movie has to be PG-13, since even younger kids will get a big kick out of it, but I don’t know that I would have done anything differently (well, a little less projectile vomiting, maybe). Kids can be as crude as they are cruel (and I can pretty much assure you that your little eight-year-old angel will understand every crude gag in this film). I’m just thankful the beef stew thing wasn’t around when I was a kid – if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just nod your head and move on because I can assure you it’s nothing you would want to have stored in your personal memory banks of childhood. As for the other stuff like pulling someone else’s pants down, taking a shot in the groin, losing control of a bat and hitting all sorts of things with it – it doesn’t matter how old these gags are, they’re still funny, dadgum it (when they happen to someone else, at least). Some of the jokes do get stretched a little too far, but I think I laughed at every one of them.

The film also has a few interesting cameos. I was thrilled when my all-time favorite player, Reggie Jackson, showed up – and he brought lots of comedy with him as he tried to turn the utterly hopeless Richie and Clark into ball players. Molly Sims and Erinn Bartlett add just the right touch of eye candy (even though there’s no way, in any universe, that the salad girl would fall for David Spade’s mop headed character). Still, it’s nice to dream. It’s also nice to laugh, and you should be doing plenty of that as you watch this film play out.